A day in our joinery

14.November 2016

At 9 o'clock in the morning I start my working day by cycling to Ngare Nanyuki, a village near Momella, were Africa Aminis Fundi centre is situated. Fundi means worker in Swahili, and at a Fundi centre you can definitely become one!

I'm a fully trained carpenter and I train and look after the young trainees. When I arrive I'm always greeted by my Fundis who walk with me for the last metres and park my bike. 

Today we are going to finish a corner cupboard for Doctor Antony. Four caseboards are still missing and we need to polish the wood surface. 

The trainees know exactly what to do and eagerly run to the store, which is where all work tools are stored in order to keep them safe. We need two hand planes, two jack saws, a ton of sandpapers, glue and ferrules. 

The third class boys are gluing the delicate biscuits together, which are later formed to one caseboard. This process takes up a lot of time and concentration, so that it fits perfectly in the end. 

The first class boys are responsible for using sandpaper all over the finished surfaces. This task is trickier than it may seem since the boards a quite big and the sandpapers comparingly little. 

As a last step we scumble the whole cupboard with anti-vermin in order to protect it in future. 

All these tasks take a lot longer than at home where one person could do it in half of the time. We simply don't have the same tools as at home hence everything takes longer. Our dream would be new tools such as long ferrules, wood planes and drills - which would save so much time.